Hippy Hollow, just wanted to say thanks for the thoughtful OP. I enjoyed it.
I’m sure sleeping more soundly at night now that this 60 year old, crippled, Harvard Professor is finally behind bars.
My sympathy would be with the cop if he’d just gotten Gate’s ID and left. The initial caller may or may not have been racist (I doubt it, but who knows), but once the call was made, the cop didn’t really have any choice but to investigate, and Gates was being a dick making it difficult for him.
But receiving a certain amount of verbal abuse is part of the cop’s job, and using his position to waste city resources and make the PD look bad just so he can get revenge on Gates for talking back is a pretty shameful abuse of authority. I hope the cop gets at least a decent slap on the wrist.
I think that the word you’re looking for there is “uppity”.
Of course, this incident couldn’t have been racist since racists don’t exist in the Northeast. It’s true, I read it in Time.
And of course the cop must be racist because he is white
And a 60-year-old man with a cane must be a cat burglar because he’s black?
No, but a man at the scene of reported break-in attempt (not a cat burlarly) can be reasonably expected to identify himself.
The cop seems racist because of his actions.
Another thumbs-up to Hippy Hollow for that OP.
Which action specifically.
Was he? I did a quick scan of the various news articles linked to, and I don’t see where the race of the cops is mentioned.
Regards,
Shodan
Good point.
The original link has a very different account of what occured, which is what I based my previous post on. My guess is that both sides were probably partially at fault.
On the bright side it appears that both sides are dropping the whole thing.
Slee
I was trying not to go there. I’m uppity on a daily basis, and I’m not interested in opening the door to having to start explaining and/or apologizing for uppityness.
Escalating the incident to the point of an arrest when he was already, by his own report, convinced that the house was Gates’ residence and therefore, no crime had taken place.
That was straight from the police report. And where two sides are both at fault, the one who acts under the color of legal authority has a much greater responsibility, and this officer failed in his responsibility, magnificently.
To me the entire ‘case’ hinges on one thing, which is “Did Dr. Gates show them ID when asked?” If he did then no matter how obnoxious Gates got (if he did) then they should have left, and if he didn’t then no matter how officious the policeman was the arrest was merited.
By the police officer’s own account Gates did show identification. The policeman said something like “eventually”, but the point is that when he arrested Gates he knew Gates lived in the house. He should be disciplined, the end.
I don’t think that seeing two men, regardless of their color, trying to wedge open a door is a reactionary reason to call the police. I don’t have trouble believing a police officer was officious and I don’t find it hard to believe that a Harvard professor could be less than humble and confrontational (especially when he was doing nothing wrong). It doesn’t make the policeman a racist to not accept the word of the person who matches the description of a person trying to break in [to a house that has a door that’s obviously been wedged] that he lives there. It does make the policeman incompetent, belligerant, and any accusations of racism more believable that he arrested him when it became clear he was who he said he was. (Apparently the policeman isn’t a big PBS viewer; I’d have known Gates from his appearances on African-American Lives, Looking for Lincoln, and several other shows as well as the jacket of his books.)
After Gates established his identity then nothing short of physical violence against the officer, which there seems to be no accusation of, would warrant his arrest. If it’s true that Gates was obnoxious and accusing then it perhaps makes him an asshole but that’s not illegal.
If it had to happen I’m just glad that it wasn’t in the South for a change but in a Blue State. And that nobody was hurt.
Big debate about this in Great Debates.
It is rather sad, though, that this woman who lives in very close proximity to Gates (both have addresses that are a single number on the same street) and who also works for the University was incapable, in broad daylight, of recognizing Gates:
a.) as her neighbor, from seeing him if not knowing him personally
b.) as her “co-worker,” from being aware of who’s who at the university
c.) as someone who she recognized by his slight stature, limp and use of a cane even if not by name/face, since all are rather identifying
d.) as an eminent member of the academic community of which she is also a part
e.) as one who makes many television and film appearances
And was so disturbed by what she saw that she called 911, but was not so afraid of the potential burglars (who had been in the house for some period of time by then) that she wouldn’t come out and meet the police on the sidewalk, therefore identifying herself as the caller. That whole thing is hinky.
Harvard has 2,000 faculty members and dozens of departments. I doubt anyone at the university would recognize all of them on sight, or even all the department chairs.
Richard Parker, Marley23, thanks.
Some more info. Gates’ house is on Ware Street. His office is in the Barker Center on Quincy Street. It’s about 2 minutes from his office to his house. Ware Street is basically a small connecting street with Harvard buildings all around it - for all intents and purposes, it’s right on campus.
When Gates moved into the house it was kind of news. Not a cheap house and very great location. I’d occasionally see him walking in the area (he once sent a very nice e-mail to my mentor professor, mentioning that I had called his office, and he learned that we had collaborated on a book, and that meant I was good people and worth talking to. Chest puffed out, I ran up to him and told him who I was - that was a pretty cool moment).
Skip Gates is probably one of the best-known and most recognizable professors, er, personalities at Harvard. So honestly, if you live on Ware Street, I imagine if you’re new someone at some point will say to you, “Hey, that’s Skip Gates.” It’s the sort of thing you’d brag about living there.
I do believe there is a apartment somewhere on Ware Street… so maybe some of the residents are more transient than others. It’s possible that Lucinda Whalen (the complainant listed on the report) lived in one of these units, which would explain why she didn’t recognize him. (Giving a lot of leeway here. Within two months of living on my street, I’d recognize by face the people who lived on my block.)
I suppose Ware Street isn’t technically Harvard property, but I’m a little surprised HUPD didn’t respond; I’ve seen them in neighborhoods adjacent to Harvard so I think it’s possible they could. (They’re “real” cops, too.) At any rate, the officer responds to the call - and Gates, completely unaware of the goings-on to this point, is in his house and having a police officer bang on the door.
I don’t know the cop’s demeanor, but Gates just returned from China doing a PBS special. He was probably dog tired, a little cranky because of the door not opening, etc. I don’t think it’s that unusual for someone in their own house to be a little cantankerous if they’re being asked to do something they don’t feel like doing.
From reading the report Gates gave the officer a lot of shit. I can understand his frustration and resentment, and as unpleasant as his shit might have been for the officer to deal with, taking shit from people is part of the job. And it seems like even after showing his ID, the officer didn’t seem to accept the fact that he was in his own home. Of course, a Harvard ID doesn’t list your home address. But it should have confirmed he was a professor, and the likelihood of him being a burglar quite low.
Hindsight is 20/20 and I’m not a cop - but I think at that point, I might go out to my car, radio HUPD, ask them to confirm the address of Gates, and roll the hell on out once it was verified. A 60 year old guy who walks with a cane isn’t going to get very far.
What’s fucked up about this is that as Black men, we’re conditioned (for good reason) to fear the police. I certainly think I would have handled it differently so I wouldn’t end up like Rodney King, Amadou Diallo, or Sean Bell, even if I was 100 percent in the right. I’d take disrespect and denigration because I can get over humiliation, but maybe not a bunch of bullets. Having said that, I’d be enraged, and I might pop off and talk shit. (And instantly regret it…)
It’s a harrowing feeling to think that you’ve done nothing wrong and you’re there, in fear, and you have to just take it. The weird thing is, no matter how legitimate the cop’s behavior might have been, he made a huge mistake. It’s not called the People’s Republic of Cambridge for nothing, and Gates has friends highly placed in the city (and the nation). Did you notice who his lawyer was? Charles freakin’ Ogletree!
If Gates stays angry this guy’s career is toast. Being the smart guy that he is, I imagine he’ll let the cop off the hook and make this a broader dialogue about police training and that kind of thing. There’s a lot of tension between the police departments in Boston and Harvard with Black folks - I was in school when there was a rash of robberies around Harvard Square. HUPD would issue e-mail alerts for students to be on the lookout for the suspects - and descriptions read like, “a Black man wearing a hooded sweatshirt.” Of course that describes nearly every Black man on Harvard’s campus in the winter. So a bunch of us complained that the descriptions seemed to be overly vague when it was a Black or Latino suspect, but when it was a White man, usually things like weight, height, and other distinguishing features were mentioned. HUPD did start sending out more complete descriptions after that.
It reminds me of two incidents involving a friend, and a friend of a friend. The first guy was a student at Harvard driving a BMW near campus. He was stopped and (in his mind) unfairly harassed by the police officer. He got verbally confrontational with the officer, was arrested, had his car impounded, and spent a few grand getting his car back, wrecked his semester academically, and was still seeing a counselor about the PTSD. The other guy was a Latino dude who in a case of mistaken identity was locked up in the Cambridge city jail for three days. In both cases, these guys assumed that being at Harvard (or affiliated) would make them more safe from the random hazards of contemporary racism. Both instances, the guys found out otherwise.
You know…not to stereotype or anything…but I’m a grad of the college that produces the most CJ grads in Mass. The stereotypical CJ grad is what was called a Yah Dude. A Yah Dude is basicly a dumb jock type. (but he generally doesn’t play sports) He drinks a lot, and wears Abrocombrie and Fitch and seriously listens to Dave Matthews, calls people “bro” and dates the type of girls who wear Pink Red Sox Hats as a fashion statement.
I can TOTALLY see that type of police officer being really dumbass towards a Havard type.